Mark interviewed Nats’ shortstop Ian Desmond at Saturday’s NatsFest and asked him about how this offseason may be different for the team coming off such a historic season. Desmond says the team now has a bit of a different mindset now that they have experienced winning the division and playing in the playoffs.

Poor Desi, no one is interested in what he has to say today. Also – no tweets that I have noticed today from Nats regarding Gio. Hope some of them have maybe called him. Or maybe they are all at Viera together.

Are you kidding, baseballswami? He might be the only healthy part of the right side of that infield! Yikes but what happens if he goes down again?I don't know perhaps world series or bust might be pushing things more than a bit given that injuries already appear to be a problem?

In other news, I like the Post article re Harper exchanging jerseys last summer w/ Stan Musial . . . at Musial's request. If a guy gets recognized like that, by such great, talented and classy player as Musial, then you now he's playing the game the way it's supposed to be played, at the highest level.

… sorry to hear of the death of Chuck Hinton. On my high school graduation night, I tuned in a Senators game and listened. He was in the lineup…. sorry to see Nick Johnson retired.As far as I was concerned, he was listed in the dictionary under 'glass jaw'…. sorry to read about Gio's muddle. All I can say is that I hope he gets out of it okay.Go Nats!!

baseballswami said… For a random Tuesday in January, this has been a pretty active news day in baseball, no?______________________________Less than 2 weeks to the start of Spring Training and most likely some players will start arriving in Viera next week.

There's a nice remembrance of Nick Johnson's Nats years from former Post beat writer Barry Svrluga at http://tinyurl.com/ahmpylb.And to chime in on the movie trivia, Mel Brooks remade "To Be or Not To Be" in the 1980s. It's a funny version but the original is better.

I think it is awful having to play a "game" when the FO needs to tell you to "keep your trap shut". So sinister. Baseball is losing it's credibility so fast. After all the guys found on illegal drugs, I am definately more of a sceptic than ever. There are players on every team cheating by taking PEDs. You just don't know who they are. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. Baseball needs to test every player on a top ten list. Test every player who has a "break-out" year, and test every rookie-of-the-year. Kick everyone found "guilty" of indulging in PEDs out of the game. Get rid of the cheaters. Try to get credibility back. Never happen.

Rabbit.. how do we know that they aren't doing that? Now with in season blood/HGH testing and the testosterone profiles that will be developed they will get caught (if not right away, eventually).I Do like hearing that some players are talking about harsher penalties – I ignore the talking heads on this – It's the rank and file union members that are saying it now. Hopefully they will get that done.

Also, the contrast yesterday between a Football player getting accused of this and a baseball player is ridiculous. If the NFL ever instituted the MLB drug policy, there would be a ton of suspensions, not to mention much SMALLER players.

The fact that the last three MLB players to get popped for PED's are listed in the article leads me to believe we are reading "old" news.MLB has been investigating this "clinic" prior to the article as well as state and federal officials. I believe it does not bode bode well for a previous user like ARod but feel fairly comfortable that Gio will will be OK.